It’s been a while again… and despite the best intentions and plans, I found it hard to get motivated to write the next tutorial. I am trying to come to terms with the ‘it’s all free’ attitude of some of the readers of this blog. It’s free advice, yes… and if you have problems following them, ask and I will try and answer as good as I can… but copying and pasting my work and handing it out as there own is not what these tutorials are about.

Barn building

Inkscape

Anyway… After the last tutorials about the buildings, there was a request for a farm/ barn (along with a few others I hope to work on soon). The iconic image of a farm is the red barn. This tutorial is about creating one using Inkscape. The same approach will work in pretty much all vector design tools and even some of the bitmap tools. The names of the tools and functionality might vary slightly but if you know the basics of the vector tool of your choice, it should be easy enough to follow this tutorial.

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2Dgameartguru barn building

Start with a rectangle and convert it to a path.
Add one node at the top centre and move it up to form a house shape.

Add another node on either side of the roof ad move the outward.

Duplicate the front twice and move one shape upward. Using the Path/ Difference ( CRL + – ), cut out the front from what will be the roof.

Scale up the roof a little and ad 3 lines using the straight line tool.

2Dgameartguru barn building
2Dgameartguru barn building

Add a duplicate of the roof, lower it and set it behind the roof.
Create two additional nodes and adjust the inner nodes to get an even width for the frontal beams of the roof.

A square with a smaller duplicate inside makes the barn window and two more rectangles form the opening of the doors.

Note:
Using the align tool to centre these shapes makes it a lot easier.

2Dgameartguru barn building
2Dgameartguru barn building

Duplicate the door frame and create another rectangle inside.
Scale it down to 1/2 the width, adjust the inner rectangle to create an even width for the white frame.

Add white beams using the straight line tool and clip them to a duplicate of the inner door element.
Duplicate both door elements and mirror them.

Start with a rounded edge rectangle/pill shape for the silo.

Convert the shape to a path, delete the bottom centre nodes and turn the resulting curve into a straight line.

2Dgameartguru barn building
2Dgameartguru barn building

Add a rectangle, convert it to a path ( SHIFT + CTRL + C ) and curve both horizontal lines.

Create another rectangle and a duplicate of the silo shape. Use the Path/ Intersection ( CTRL + * ) to make a separate shape at the top.

Duplicate the top shape twice and scale the width down to create a pattern for the roof.

Adjust the height of the white decor shape by moving the bottom nodes.

2Dgameartguru barn building
2Dgameartguru barn building

Start with two more rectangles for the extension.

Duplicate the roof shape and scale it down – to form the bottom beam – and another duplicate for added detail on the roof.

2Dgameartguru barn building
2Dgameartguru barn building

Duplicate the window used on the front of the barn and add them to the extension.

Add details like a fence made up of rectangles for posts and boards…

and you have your basic barn building.

2Dgameartguru barn building
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As with all my tutorials, it’s about variations, additions, playing with the elements to create your own work. Have fun!
2Dgameartguru feature buildings
2Dgameartguru feature refine buildings
2Dgameartguru feature building barn
2Dgameartguru feature modular buildings